by Mary Claire Kendall

Created on: December 11, 2011   Last Updated: January 08, 2012

Windstream (NASDAQ: WIN), headquartered in Little Rock, Arkansas, is a business on the move. 

Founded in 2006, Windstream is “an S&P 500 communications and technology solutions provider with operations in 29 states and the District of Columbia and about $4 billion in annual revenues,” as it recently reported. (See "About Windstream.") 

According to Reuters, the consensus opinion of various investment analysts is that Windstream will “outperform” expectations in the coming fiscal year beginning January 1, 2012. Its shares have traded on NASDAQ since 2009 after a voluntary switch from the New York Stock Exchange, where it began trading its common stock in 2006.

The third quarter results, released by the company on November 4, 2011, revealed overall impressive performance.  While total revenues for the quarter of $1.023 billion were down 1 percent from the year prior, key sectors the company prioritized—both the business service and consumer broadband sectors—were up 2 percent and 7percent, with revenues of $498 million and $118 million, respectively. 

Specifically, according to the third quarter release, "advanced data and integrated solutions" for businesses increased 1 percent and 9,300 new high-speed Internet customers were added, for a 4 percent increase, bringing the total number of customers to 1.35 million, representing almost 65 percent of primary residential lines. Additionally, “(t)he company ended the quarter with approximately 449,000 video customers, representing 4 percent growth from a year ago.”  

As Jeff Gardner, Windstream’s president and CEO, said, “Our goal over the past few years was to transform our business to achieve revenue and cash flow growth. Given our shifting revenue mix, success-based capital investments and expected deal synergies, we are on the verge of showing growth in both of these areas.”  

On December 1, Windstream announced it had "completed its acquisition of PAETEC Holding Corp. in a transaction valued at approximately $2.3 billion"—establishing Windstream as "a nationwide communications and technology solutions provider," as stated in the company history timeline for 2011.  

This is significant, especially for the corporation's business services sector—and caught many by surprise.  PAETEC, serving 86 of the top 100 Metropolitan Statistical Areas, has, as the company

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